A lawyer for a wealthy dentist accused of shooting his wife straight through the heart with a shotgun at the end of an African safari to be with his longtime girlfriend urged jurors on Friday to dismiss what he said was a government case built on gossip and innuendo and acquit him.
Lawrence “Larry” Rudolph's attorney, David Markus, said there was a “lot of noise” during the three-week trial about the 67-year-old defendant's affairs, cash payments to his girlfriend and whether the funeral he organized for his wife was nice enough. But he said federal prosecutors had not proven that Bianca Rudolph, his client's wife of 34 years and a nervous traveler, did not accidentally shoot herself.
